How it works
What can you eat with a baked potato? Almost anything saucy, salty or creamy, because the potato itself is plain. These 39 ideas run from toppings to fillings that make it a meal, main dishes it sits beside and drinks.
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Toppings by country
In North America a baked potato with butter, sour cream, chives, shredded cheese and bacon bits is called loaded. It is a side to a steak dinner, or, stuffed with barbecued meat or chili, the main dish. In the United Kingdom, where it is called a jacket potato, fillings include grated cheddar, baked beans, tuna mayonnaise, chili con carne and chicken curry, and in Scotland sometimes haggis. Turkish kumpir has the inside mashed with butter and cheese.
Side or meal
Decide first what the potato is. As a side, give it one topping and let the main dish lead. As the meal, pick one saucy filling and add something cold or green. Hot fillings go on first and cold ones last.
- For a group, bake the potatoes plain and set the toppings out, so each person loads their own.
- A wet filling needs a firm skin. Bake the potato unwrapped, not in foil, so the skin crisps.
Questions and answers
What meat goes with a baked potato?
Beside it: grilled steak, roast chicken, meatloaf, barbecue ribs or pot roast. On it: pulled pork, smoked brisket, taco beef and salsa or beef stew.
What to eat baked potato with for dinner?
Make the potato the meal with beef ragù, buffalo chicken, sloppy joe beef or creamed chicken and mushrooms, and add a green salad. Or keep it as the side to fried chicken or barbecue chicken, with buttered green beans.
What goes on a baked potato without meat?
Shredded cheddar, chickpea curry, egg mayonnaise, coleslaw, cream cheese with herbs, or broccoli and cheese sauce.
What cold fillings go on a jacket potato?
Coronation chicken, egg mayonnaise, prawns in pink mayonnaise sauce, smoked mackerel and coleslaw. Spoon them on at the table so the potato stays hot underneath.